


Caught in the Tension Wheel

by polandspringz



Series: Designing in Devildom [5]
Category: Shall We Date?: Obey Me!
Genre: Blood and Violence, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Sneaking Out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-12 16:54:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29512797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polandspringz/pseuds/polandspringz
Summary: Based on one of the "Spy on Them!" events- Poland goes behind Lucifer's back and gets a job at Ristorante Six.
Series: Designing in Devildom [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1864159
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	Caught in the Tension Wheel

“Yo, human! Take this over to table thirteen!”

“On it!”

_Step, step, step._

Black mary-janes clicked across the kitchen floor as the small figure darted through the demon chefs who towered over their countertop stations. Mysterious ingredients of newt and frog legs flew through the air and into the pot, forming arcs over the human girl’s head as she quickly scooped up her serving tray and rushed through the swinging doors headfirst.

Bursting out of the kitchen’s fog and heat and into the comfortable cold air of Ristorante Six’s dining room, she quickly composed herself and rounded the small wall between the doors and the tables and booths of the restaurant floor. The red carpet scuffed the bottom of her shoes as she strode forward, round tray balanced confidently on one hand.

It was another walkway full of bustling people. Taller coworkers with horns and tails flicking out narrowly stepped around her as they went about taking orders and delivering them, the eyes of them and the patrons slinking across her form as she passed, following even after she had turned another corner and was out of sight.

Table thirteen was within sight. She put on her best smile and slid beside it, elegantly tilting the tray as she plucked each dish off the silver platter and set it before each demon.

“Please enjoy your meal,” she said as she gave a curtsy. And then she was gliding away, back through the aisles of legs that chasséd around her. She was small, average height for a human, but tiny amongst the inhabitants of this realm. Her shoes were heeled so she could reach the tables, but even then, she felt like she was walking through a mythical festival of giants, the booths like stalls packed full of masks of demons and yokai to sell to folk as red light from lanterns and mysterious mist circled through the air.

The restaurant was modeled after the English design, the waiters dressed western like butlers with tailcoats and ties. Only she sported a dress, a custom outfit resembling a maid’s uniform with the black satin skirt and white bow with tails that danced when she walked. Perhaps that was why their eyes chased her, they thought she was taunting them, the flutter of her ribbon like the wag of a tail. As if the secret item on the menu was the human employee who tantalizingly twirled through the tables and greeted them with hooded eyes and a smirk. A dare.

Poland sighed as she dropped her tray roughly onto a dirty table in an empty part of the establishment. Undignified as it was, she was exhausted just from putting up the front for a few minutes. She let herself flop across the tray for a moment as she breathed, her toes nearly coming off the ground as she draped her whole weight onto the booth’s table. There were dirty wine glasses within reach and cluttered silverware matted with chunks of food that remained stuck to the plates. Disgusting. Her hands quickly reached for the dirty glass to swipe onto her tray, filling it up quickly before she disappeared back into the kitchen to the dishwasher.

It was hard working so many jobs in Devildom, but it was better than doing nothing all year. She had started out working under the promise that she would let one of the brothers supervise her time so she didn’t get gobbled up or killed by a customer. That deal was still ongoing, but as far as Poland was concerned, it only applied to her jobs at Majolish and such. Lucifer and the others didn’t know about her time at Ristorante Six, and she would like to keep it that way. As far as they were concerned, she was off on her weekly study night with Solomon at Purgatory Hall, the sorcerer covering for her on most weekends she had shifts. On other days, she snuck out from the House of Lamentation when they thought she was asleep in her room. Working three times a week at Majolish didn’t pay much, but the single paycheck that came from one night at Ristorante Six?

Well, let’s just say she would be able to afford that crushed velvet at the fabric store for her next costume by the end of her shift.

Besides, she mused to herself as she quickly deposited the dishes in the washer before disappearing back through the doors to find the next table, so what if the demons thought she was some sort of dish? She didn’t like the threat of being eaten, sure, but on nights when she was rumoured to be here, the crowds doubled. The owner liked the business, and paid extra just for her to be walking through the restaurant. Bussing tables was gross, but the tips she got alongside notes with numbers and whispers taunting her to meet them in the alley after her shift, it was worth playing up the role of a temptress, at least once or twice.

Afterall, she was smart enough to not give in to such taunts. She had learned how to evade them on her second shift and Lucifer was none the wiser about any threats she may have been exposed to when she saw him the next morning at breakfast.

Rather than running back and forth between the tables and the kitchen, Poland worked on stacking several dirty dishes on her tray to shorten the time, although the weight of it was slightly heavy. She regretted not taking the cart with her, but oh well, she would be depositing them in the sink soon enough. She turned and started towards the doors-

Her smile twitched as the weight of the tray seemed to grow on her arm. There seemed to be quite a bustling amount of people lingering in front of the closest doors.

“Are you kidding me?” She mumbled under her breath. The waiters were whispering to one another, pointing at their notepads and looking panicked. Poland raised one brow as she watched them for another moment before she sighed resolutely and turned on her heel, “Whatever. I’ll just have to go to the other doors.”

She made her way through the maze of the restaurant again, leaving her usual section to dance towards the more high class eating area. Despite the sloppy plates and grimy glasses clouding up her hands, she made sure to sway and flounce like usual as she passed by customers. She didn’t need her manager lecturing her later for making the restaurant look less classy. She smiled and waved at the salivating demons before she slipped between the doors, which were just as crowded with gossiping employees as before, but she wasn’t waiting anymore. She forced her way through and disappeared to the other side, dumping her dishes in the sink and exchanging her tray for a clean one before a hand grabbed the back of her collar and lifted her in the air.

“Hey-!”  
  


“You! Human!” A voice hissed out. It was one of her managers.

“It’s _Poland_. And put me down!”

“You’re not supposed to be in this section! You know we can’t control the high ranking demons! If they try and eat you, Lord Diavolo will have our-”

She squirmed violently, kicking against the demon’s side as she tried to shake herself free, “I had to go this way because all _your_ waiters were blocking the doors on my side! And let me go! You’re going to rip my uniform with your claws!”

The air rushed around Poland as she was dropped unceremoniously on the ground, her feet slipping and her tray clattering to the ground as her hands grazed the dirty kitchen tile. The tray wobbled for a minute as it fought to find a way to settle, and with a groan she bent over and scooped the thing up, frisbeeing it back towards the dishwasher, “Great, thanks. Now I need _another_ new tray.”

“You can get one from the shelves on the other side of the kitchen. Get back to your section.”

“I would like _nothing more_ to, but tell your waiters to stop clogging the aisles! I could barely get through either doors!”

  
“What? What are they doing out there?” The tall man began to stomp over towards the exit, his beefy form _would_ be intimidating if she hadn’t already met demons like Beelzebub. As her manager peeked out the doors, she quickly grabbed a new plate and started to sneak towards the inner part of the kitchen, hoping to get back to her side before he could notice the plate missing.

_“-What do you mean it’s not clean?”_

_“The last reservation apparently left the room a mess! And we just got word that… is on their way!”_

_“What?!”  
  
_

Poland made it two tip-toes in the direction of the kitchen before she was grabbed roughly again and lifted off the ground.

“Hey! I told you-! I’m going back to my side so-”

Four bottles of cleaning products were shoved into her hands in place of the tray. A cart was slammed in her ankle with several towels and a clean set of silverware and table settings on it. She blinked up at the demons circling her with pleading eyes before landing on her manager.

“We need the private room cleaned _now._ Two of the highest ranking demons are going to be arriving here in ten minutes, so we have to get the kitchen ready. Clean the reservation space and get out of there before they arrive, you got it?”

Poland scowled up at him, but knew there was no getting out of it. With a _hmph_ and a kick to the cart, she was pivoting out the door, wondering to herself how this place became so high class when everyone besides her was obviously incompetent.

* * *

“They’re here! Get back to your station,” was all she heard before she was tugged out of the private room. Her hands were pulled out from underneath the silverware she was wrapping up in the napkin, sending it thumping against the tablecloth. Just as quickly as she was grabbed, the hands were gone.

_On second thought,_ she thought as she rubbed where the claw marks had turned her skin red, _maybe the paycheck isn’t worth it._ She never had this sort of rough treatment at her other jobs, but maybe that was _because_ she always had one of her housemates or friends supervising her. Or maybe it was that they were supervising the ones who were supposed to be supervising her.

_I thought I was tough enough by now to handle myself in Devildom. I guess I was wrong._

Still, she was going to make it to the end of her shift. _Ten thousand grimm… Only two more hours,_ she reminded herself. Besides, she had rough nights here before, and sometimes the people at the Fall were a bit grabby too. She could survive, she had to-

“They’ve been seated! Hurry, bring out the dishes!” The chefs and servers rushed past her, spinning her around like a whirlwind had struck. She grasped the cart and tried to not topple over as they jostled her. They were carrying quite a hefty amount of dishes. _Geez, it’s like Beelzebub is here-_

She peeked around the corner and froze.

“Keep this little dinner outing of ours a secret,” a hand waved and motioned for the food to be placed on the large table she had just finished setting.

“Sure, got it. I’d really like it if Beel could also join us next time.”

“If that’s the case, we’ll all go out together next time. I promise.”

Poland dragged her foot back and ducked behind the wall at the speed of light, hand clasping over her mouth- before she realized how dirty it must be from scrubbing the tables- and peeled it off.

_What were they doing here???_

She craned her head around the corner again. A few feet away, through an archway into an octagonal shaped room built into the back of the restaurant, Lucifer and Belphegor sat at either ends of the table.

_I thought they still hated each other? I should be happy that their relationship is improving, I guess, but… No wait! This isn’t the time to think about that now!_

“Hey, human!” One of her coworkers kicked the back of her shin, startling her with a yelp.

“Watch it!” Another server hissed, “You can’t call her that now! You’ll alert _them.”_

He nudged his shoulder in the direction of the dining room.

“What the fuck am I suppose to call _it_ then?”

“Try _Poland._ And You shouldn’t kick people to begin with,” Poland growled, shooting him a dirty look from under the fringe of her wig. _Right, she had chosen a dark black wig for tonight. It was unlikely they would recognize her with this hairstyle,_ “What do you want? Lemme guess. Get this cart out of here and go back to my side of the restaurant?”

“Exactly.”

“Lovely, I was just about to do that. I don’t want to be spotted either. Thanks for reminding _me,_ but having my job ripped away from me by my _babysitters_ isn’t ideal for me either. _”_

She was planning on walking calmly away, delicately pushing the cart away from the doors- _to be honest, she wasn’t sure which doors she was supposed to use anymore. Her current goal was just to cross the restaurant unspotted and then hide out in the empty side until the night was over-_ she turned her gaze away from the two waiters for a moment, catching the sympathetic glance of the wary one.

Then, she felt spit land on her neck.

She rounded around and kicked her leg high into the air, nailing him in between the legs with the pointed heel before it dragged down and banged against his shin. There was a loud gasping sound as he caught his breath before claws were around her leg and she was yanked-

_“You bitch-”_

There was a clatter and a hand soaring through the air. Poland’s green eyes reflected the shiny, sharpened nails in the warm overhead lights as they came brandishing a broken dish towards her face. She blinked once and threw her hands up, the second demon beside her shouting as he lunged forward to intervene as the cart was kicked up and began to topple-

“What are you- Stop!”

The china cut through the skin of her arm, and the pain only just flared up when she was roughly knocked away and dropped to the ground, her head banging against the wooden skirting of the wall. She opened her eyes and then _shut them_ as she shielded herself from the dirty plates and dishwater of the wet towels and cups raining down in a waterfall of glass. Pieces of dishware bounced back around her head like hail and pounded beside her ears as she was nicked by exploding shards. When the sounds had settled, she cracked open one eye, sitting up when she saw the demon was being held back by the other waiter. He had launched himself forward when the broken china had just begun to be raised again, and must have been the one to bang into the cart.

“Get off of me-!”

“Calm down already! What do you think making a scene like this is going to accomplish?!”

Poland pushed herself up against the wall, stopping when she caught sight of the slice of pink in her arm beginning to darken as the water ran off her skin, leaving space for red to bubble and ebb out. Other parts of her skin were screaming where pieces of shattered glass and ceramic had embedded themselves inside.She jolted when she felt some stab her back, her hair having swept up some of the finer pieces in its tangles.

“What is the meaning of this?” Her manager skidded to a stop as he tried to block out the stares of everyone in the restaurant who had stood up from their seats at the commotion. He only glanced at the fighting demons for a moment before he twisted around and caught sight of _Poland_ and that was all it took for his eyes to turn a bright, visceral red.

_“You! I knew you were trouble from the start-”_

“Don’t touch her!” The one holding her attacker shouted. He reached his arm out but quickly pulled back when the demon started to slip away towards her. His shouts fell on deaf ears, as the manager was already grabbing ahold of Poland’s bleeding arm, roughly digging his nails into the damaged skin as he yanked her to her feet. Poland stumbled, the world shaking as her legs wobbled unsteadily. It was a _deep_ cut, and it was currently dripping all down the front of her apron. She reached up and touched her head, distantly recognizing the feeling of her wig lopsided as the strands started to slip through her fingers. Her feet left the floor as she was tugged into the air by the shoulder, and yelped in pain as she was shook like a ragdoll and shouted at.

“I knew you were nothing but trouble! Clean this mess up and then get the fuck out of here!”

“I’m sorry!” She shouted, tears streaming down her cheeks as she was overwhelmed by the blurry ringed lights, the motion, the nauseating feeling as her arm dripped more and more blood-

“Excuse me-”

Poland winced, feeling someone’s hands cautiously wrap around her and pry the claws off of her shoulder gently. She fell freely for a moment, but a hand curled around her waist and helped her touch her feet down on the carpet. She was coaxed to lean back against the figure when she stumbled slightly, and she complied. The other hand wrapped around her wound, applying slight pressure as it examined the way the blood continued to bubble at the jagged cut before pouring out. Poland stared at the fingers, the fabric of a familiar dark blue cardigan catching on the edge of the wound and bits of ripped skin..

She tilted her head back against the person’s shoulder, and their hold tightened around her waist, steadying and comforting, “Belphie?”

“I can’t believe you,” he sighed, “Working here behind our backs?”

“But... the money,” she whined, shutting her eyes and leaning back into Belphegor’s hold.

“You don’t need the money, I thought we made that clear,” she heard Lucifer’s voice grumble, followed by some horrible grunting and whimpering likely from the demon he was stepping on, “We allowed you to work because you wanted to, but we outlined that you did not need to, and we made a compromise that you would only work where you could be supervised, correct?”

“Yes, yes, yes,” Poland mumbled, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I promise. Let me sleep now.”

Belphegor’s arms adjusted around her, “Lucifer, she’s anemic, isn’t she? I remember hearing about that....”

A muffled curse under his breath, _“_ We will have to deal with this incident later. In front of Lord Diavolo. Poland, we’re going home. Or rather, to a hospital, then home.”

“Sorry for ruining your… dinner.”

“It’s fine,” she felt the rough leather of a glove brush against her cheek, pushing the artificial hair out of the way as Belphegor picked her up, “Let’s just get you home.”

“I’ll keep it a secret… that you guys were here,” she felt the hand stiffen on her cheek, but then it relaxed and a thumb caressed under her eye soothingly. She heard Lucifer let out another sigh. She had really messed up this time.

“There’s no point worrying about that. It’s not going to matter much anyway when we both arrive home and have to explain what happened to you. By the way, didn’t I receive word that you were studying at Purgatory Hall with Solomon tonight?”

Poland’s eyes shot open, and a surge of adrenaline had her almost floundering out of Belphegor’s hold had he not held her tight. Lucifer fished his phone out of his pocket and began to dial, leveling her with a cold, disappointed glare.

“You’ve been telling us that lie for… several weeks now, have you?”

_Shit. No time to warn him I guess,_ she said as she gave Lucifer what she hoped was an apologetic, guilty smile.

_Sorry, Solomon. Hopefully you can sense my apology and have enough time to run._

Inside Purgatory Hall, a cell phone began to ring. It would have to go to voicemail, for Solomon’s cape was already fluttering past the window as he dashed across the lawn the moment he felt a chill stab the back of his neck.

**Author's Note:**

> I think since I've been only writing long, complicated stories recently, writing a one-shot like this feels weird. This was just meant to be a fun short idea, since I was basing it on a scene with only four lines of dialogue to begin with, but it still felt strange to me to just cut the story off there with no long winded scenes of care or comfort, haha. I swear Poland is fine though! It just also seemed weird to drag the narrative out and tack on an extra scene, but maybe I might write a short epilogue to this if I really feel like it's missing some resolution. Either way, I hope you enjoyed! I have a lot of stories still planned for this series, and hope to be working on a few more of them soon.


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